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Reflections in Isolation

The COVID-19 lockdown may have afforded many business owners the opportunity to reflect on how they may have been better prepared to manage the crisis. It is likely that there will be a number of common threads evident, however it is certain that they will all be focused on the same goal of making the business more resilient and able to survive, revive or indeed thrive in the event of a major business disruption.

A CFO’s knowledge and experience is invaluable.  Now more than ever, the right advice and planning is paramount in navigating from Survive to Thrive.

To this end, I have held team meetings with our 40 part-time CFO’s over the last week and wanted to share my learnings in order to help more businesses during these challenging times. It was pleasing to hear how many of our clients are moving from ‘survive’ mode to ‘revive’ or indeed ‘thrive’ mode.

What does a CFO do?

A CFO’s (Chief Finance Officer’s) role is to get fully engaged in your business, regularly drill down into your financials and use their perspective by which to help you plan, forecast and monitor financial performance. A CFO can provide valuable help to you in the follow areas:

Help you strategize, plan and operate your business to your maximum financial advantage.
Analyse results in the context of the company’s objectives and strategies.

The spread of COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on lives, livelihoods and businesses worldwide.

Now more than ever, businesses are banding together to find innovative ways to minimise the impact on their business. Some are even retooling their current operation to assist with the shortfall of products.

As the country slowly goes into lockdown, more and more businesses are either closing their doors due to safety reasons or have closed due to a mandatory shut down.

“This too shall pass”

If history has taught us anything, it’s that the only constant in life is change.

Over the course of the last century alone there have been a litany of challenges and numerous disasters, all of which have one thing in common – they’ve all passed.

Some months from now – it’s impossible to predict the true timeline – the current situation we face with Covid-19 will too have passed.

Systems & Reporting – Made Easy 

Naresh Sakhrani, Principal on the East Coast, is a Sydney-based CFO with extensive experience in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, media, online and professional services. Here at The CFO Centre, we interviewed Naresh to delve into his knowledge around Systems & Reporting…

What is the definition of “Systems & Reporting”?

Reporting of information is a critical process in any organization. Information is used to let stakeholders know about their financials (P&L and Balance Sheet).